(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread

Arsenal FC✔@Arsenal

Morning everyone! The pre-season campaign starts today with #BWFCvAFC and you can watch it live on #Arsenal Player!

Jose M talking shit about the Cesc move.

An odious little man.

Looking more likely that we may sign the AM fullback and loan out CarlJ

I'd like CJ to stay but if he goes to a club whee he is a first team starter then maybe it's a good longer term option.

Not always convinced on our loan out policy. 

Podolski to Sevilla?

not sure this will happen but if so then I would expect another signing upfront. Or Gnarby is not out on loan. 

Jose really is a twat.
I really hope that we thump them this year and Cesc plays average as.

i read that too, and agree, but i dont begrudge Cesc for going to Chel$ea

I dont begrudge him at all - he wanted to come back, we said sorry but no thanks, so he went elsewhere in London (and not to Sp*rs).

Now mourinho is talking sh*t, as always. 

As foal said, odious little man.

He does have a bizarre dislike of Arsenal and Wenger, always has. 

A bit too fixated on Arsenal / Wenger really, it's strange. 

I agree though, he wanted Arsenal - of course he did. Unfortunately for both parties he wasn't what we needed. A guy that regularly tweets about watching Arsenal games, results or all sorts of other Arsenal related things, he 100% wanted Arsenal over Chelsea.

It seems like maybe his lady friend wanted London, by default he wanted London, Chelsea were the only other real option after Arsenal. Or you play for Fulham, QPR or Westham. Or that other team. Not sure any girl is worth that. 

Be interesting to see if IG was telling me the truth, as Khedira rumours seem to get stronger by the day! Might of been giving me porkies!

Ahh so that's who it was, wow now that is a good source!

I am starting to think you could've been right Chopper. I feel if the rumours were true then this deal may have already been done.

Wenger as usual has been very cryptic with the press in his latest comments, but I do get the feeling that DM is lower on his priority list than we think. He was talking about the amount of midfielders we have yesterday. I wonder if he's prepared to get by without another true DMF again this season. 

Or maybe we could see the Ox transitioned in there permanently as Arsene has hinted in the past. He's said on a few occasions that he sees him as a deep-lying midfielder in future.

Ox posted an instagram vid and message last night suggesting he's fully fit for the new season. 

I am very intrigued to see how that transition goes (with the Ox). He's quick, energetic, strong and has a great long pass on him. 

Ospina rumours also getting stronger.

Was just about to post that. Ospina would be a great signing. Not just a number 2 but a genuine number 1 challenger. Was one of the most impressive in a World Cup full of outstanding goalkeeping.

Just spent the last 2 1/2 hours watching the 2013/14 season review. Barring those aberrations vs. big teams, we were REALLY good last season, that's taking into account all the injury dramas and mental hurdles after those horror results.

I would be genuinely surprised if we didn't win something again this season.

I also ordered a 2014/15 away shirt from football central, getting the "Alexis 17" and a couple of premier league patch's on it. (had to double check to se if he was going to be Alexis or Sanchez on his shirt) Picking it up tomorrow morning. Guy in the shop said thanks for sending all you guys in to get your shirts.

My mother is taking younger brothers to Las Vegas (younger brother basketball tournament / trials). She asked if there's anything I wanted from there. I told her both home / away Puma Arsenal shirts. About $90USD each, so no savings, except on my pocket!!

Question - the authentic home replica is the tight fitting shirt for players, and the home replica would be the standard fitting for those... less... fit?

Don't know if you can buy the tight fitting ones or if they are just for the players, but the ones on arsenal.com are "regular fit" and so are the ones in Football Central so assume that's the retail version everywhere.

If anything you'd think the US might sell em bigger

The more I hear about us signing khedira. Which I still don't think will happen. The more interested I am with scheiderlin. Ive watched a few clips about him and hes seems like the player we need. Almost a younger arteta. And he seems pretty cheap too. Would be good business I reckon

I agree Kwlap. Especially given Khedira's wage demands, and that it doesn't look like Jack/Ramsey will play that role any time soon he wouldn't be blocking development of anyone. Unless you're Coquellin, who I personally think should have been getting first team game time last season, but Arsene knows.

As an aside the Balotelli rumours are popping up again, apparently he's down to a $15m asking fee. Reasonable price for a gamble but given his age and track record he's likely to contribute season long. Also with Sanchez on board I feel like the pressure would be off him too.

I am now torn after seeing the Home GK shirt, very nice, tempted to buy that instead of the new home kit (I have last seasons home kit).

This is from Puma's website:

Probably a silly question looking at the shirts now though!!

Ah right. Surely they won't sell many of the skin tight at double the price!

Must say our new away kit looked all sorts of awesomeness in the boreham wood friendly

Can't wait to see the home kit in action

On the tranfers front... craploads of baloney going round the newsnow thread in the last 24 hours, some interesting tidbits I saw (disclaimer: most of this will be dubious at best);

- metro claiming we'll sign khedira tonight

- some rumours surfacing of a big money bid for william carvalho

- scheidnerlin being linked with spurs now it seems

- vermaelen/manU links re-surfaced

- balotelli rumours up and running again

- we're being linked with an italian right back peruzzi

- multiple outlets claiming the ospina deal is all but done

My thoughts: 

Surely metro are talking crap

Carvalho, no idea, sounds interesting though

Schneiderlin, poor guy

Balotelli stuff is surely bogus - sounds like we're done with bringing in forwards

Peruzzi, what's going on, why are we being linked with all these RBs? Reckon we should keep Jenko here and be happy with what we have in that position.

Ospina, excellent, perfect signing

Vermaelen, this one sounds like it has legs and he'll be going there. I'm ok with that if we get a few bucks and sign a very good replacement. 

Sounds like Ospina may be announced today. Fingers crossed.

saw the home shirt next to one of the older home shirts in the weekend, and the red seems different.  Is it somehow......brighter?

I'd noticed that to FM. Maybe because we've switched from Nike to Puma?

any place in Wellington I can try on that authentic home strip? Just wanna check how good I look. 

If we sign Ospina: two 'keepers that are 24-25 and have been no. 1s for more than a full season: that could be interesting to see their character as you'd have to say that, logically, in 12-24 months one will be wanting to leave. 

Centre half - definitely the most pressing position now. And who out there is available? Gutted we didn't get a bid in to beat PSG to Luiz' signature. 

throw some cash at WBA's Jonas Olsson? They have got J Lescott in on a free.

Really depends on TV situation, IMO crazy to sell him too anyone , let alone the cheque-book champions.

You'd think we'd be better off keeping him even if he left on a free next year. 

This time next year what signings are we even going to need?

If we do get a GK and a DM in this off-season, then we may just be focussing on CBs next year and nobody else, thus giving us a whole year to prepare for him leaving. 

Plus he's going to get gametime this season, that's for sure. Mertesacker surely won't be ready for the first couple of weeks. If Vermaelen and Kosc were to play well then Wenger's history suggests he wouldn't drop him for the sake of it. And the likelihood of kosc and the sack being as injury-free as last season is slim to none. 

I feel the only way he will leave is if he pleads with Wenger for that to happen. It's a weakness of ours that we care too much about the money and we don't stand up to players in that instance. I felt we should've forced van persie to stay and risked him leaving for free as well. 

We have all been going to Football Central in the Leftbank arcade, Cuba Street.

Even if vermaelen stays I strongly suspect we'll have a new captain this season.

Mertesacker hands down for me.

I've never really thought Miquel could do a job for Arsenal, seems really clumsy - and the fact that he hasn't progressed anywhere seems to show that he won't. At Arsenal anyway. If TV stays, I think that lad Paulm was talking about, Semi Ajayi should be promoted and get himself a cup game or three. Have read good things about him - who watched the Boreham Wood game? He played the first half.

If it's not him or Miquel, we need to be bringing in a 4th CB - two CB's if TV leaves.

I think he might be talking about the 'snug' fitting strip for those with abs!

Regarding a 3rd/4th CB, Djourou is actually still ours. Wonder what's happening there! Also, do you think there's any chance Jenkinson might be converted to a CB? With the rumours of signing another RB, maybe it's a possibility. Another reason why we should have just given Sagna the money, he was top class when required to fill in at CB.

It's a bloody difficult one to understand how it will play out. Interestingly Ramsey was given the arm band for the last match, I'd like to see that continue and grow him for the future in that role.

Ramsey is f*cking awesome.

Over the last 18 months he's developed a swagger to the way he carries himself, it's quite obvious there's a difference just in the way he acts now. He just seems to have that aura of a really great player about him. I can't see the last 1.5 seasons being a flash in the pan, this guy is the real deal, one of the best in the world. 

I can definitely see him being captain, but maybe not yet, give him a couple of years...

Mertesacker has to be the man... last season he was captain in every way except officially. He organises on the pitch, he's sensible, he's responsible, everything he does screams captain to me. He was the one ruffling ozil when he didn't thank the away fans, he's the one who collects team fines, it just fits. I love him.

Jenkinson to CB, no thanks... his strengths are his engine and his crossing, both of which are wasted at CB. He has the height but I'm not sure what else he'd bring to the CB role. 

Djourou I'd have as 4th choice for sure, but I think he might be done with us for whatever reason. 

Mertesacker absolutely must be captain.

+1 on Mertesacker. All of the academy players love him too, or the younger ones in general - he talks to everyone and offers advice / shares his experience with them.

BFC

And you really feel like he is one of us too, not some mercenary who will leave the moment United/Barcelona/whoever come in. His brother goes to every game sitting with the fans too, including traveling to all away games. Should be captain for probably the next 3 years and then it will be Ramsey's time.

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